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22 | THE COLONY NEWS | FEBRUARY 2022 | COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD By Mike Vergara, (951) 461-2889 February is the shortest, and usually the rainiest, month of the year. Hopefully we'll get some clear nights for viewing the sky. We've had Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mercury in the early evening sky these past few months, along with a comet that turned out to be pretty difficult to spot without help. Now the planets are all daytime or morning objects. Mars, Venus and Mercury all come up just before the sun. There's still the moon to light up these winter nights! February's full moon, known as the "Full Snow Moon," is on the 16th. The rest is the usual fantastic winter sky. Orion dominates the winter sky as he does every year around this time. Betelgeuse is still bright red, and Rigel is big and blue. Orion's "sword" isn't a star, but a huge star-forming region called a nebula. If you have binoculars or a telescope, take a long look at the sword, it's pretty amazing! "Nebula" is from a Greek word meaning "cloud," and that's exactly what the Orion Nebula looks like. There's also the Pleiades star cluster and Sirius, the brightest star in the sky (other than the sun, of course!). In the northwest around sunset, there is the famous "W" (or "M") shape of the constellation Cassiopeia. Using the lower peak of the "M" as a pointer, look towards the west. Look slowly, and you might be able to pick out something that seems to be a smudge of light. That smudge of light is the most distant object visible to the unaided eye – the great galaxy in Andromeda. This galaxy, also known as "M31," is 2.2 million light-years away. What is a "light-year?" Light travels at 186,282 miles per second. There are on average 31,536,000 seconds in a year. Multiplying those numbers returns 5.87 trillion miles. When giving talks, I usually round this up to 6 trillion miles; it makes the math easier. The International Space Station will be passing overhead in the early evenings for the first part of the month; these passes will range from 5:45 to 6:35 pm at their highest point. Later in the month, it switches to mornings. Visit http://skymaps.com/index.html to print your own map of the sky for the month. For information about satellites, go to https://heavens-above.com. Clear skies! February Sky February Sky Sue Berry Charles Companik Helen Graham Jack Harmon Francoise Montanye Cheryl Nalley Robert Newhard James Page Chuck (Charles) Smith Chencie Voss In Memoriam